Spruce up

Now here is an odd but surprisingly tasty idea for winter. I went to an Italian restaurant in Toronto and they produced a charcuterie platter which included cheese and one of the side dishes was Pickled Spruce and it tasted really good. Now back home I surfed the internet and found this recipe.

Ingredients

200g spruce tips, picked whilst still very young and just emerging from their papery covering.

80g salt 1 tsp

Black peppercorns

300ml cider vinegar

Method

Remove the papery covering from the spruce tips then wash and blot dry on kitchen paper. Combine the vinegar, black peppercorns and salt to a pan and heat until the salt dissolves. Put the cleaned spruce tips in a large jar and top with the warm vinegar mix. Cover the jar and stir every day for a week then transfer the spruce tips to a clean, sterilized jar, top with the vinegar mix, seal and store in the fridge for at least 2 months to mature before using. These make an excellent replacement for capers and are wonderful on salads, or added to sauces as flavouring.

I’ll start mine… let me know how yours come along.